Prediction Thread: When Will Ukraine Conquer Russia

[BeBMan]

Russian women fear return of murderers freed to fight for Wagner

Concern that convicts re-entering society after stints in Ukraine will bring ‘wave of murder, rape and domestic violence’


The 2020 murder of Vera Pekhteleva, by her ex-boyfriend, was so gruesome that even in Russia, where violence against women often goes under the radar, it caused a media outcry.

Vladislav Kanyus spent hours torturing Pekhteleva before she died; neighbours repeatedly called police to report horrifying screams coming from the neighbouring apartment, but the police did not show up. At trial, it emerged there had been 111 injuries on Pekhteleva’s body.

Last summer, a court in Siberia sentenced Kanyus to 17 years in prison for the murder. Pekhteleva’s family members were disappointed that the judge dismissed additional charges of rape and unlawful imprisonment, but breathed a sigh of relief that the murder charge alone would put Kanyus behind bars for 17 years.

Nine months later, in the middle of May, Pekhteleva’s mother received two photographs from an anonymous account on WhatsApp. They showed a man in military fatigues and were accompanied by a message: “Kanyus is free, and fighting in Ukraine.”

“I couldn’t believe my eyes, I tried to calm her down, I tried to say it wasn’t him, it was Photoshop. But we quickly realised it really was him,” said Vladimir Pekhtelev, Vera’s uncle, in a telephone interview from the Siberian city of Kemerovo.

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/russian-women-wagner-convicts-war-ukraine

[BeBMan]

Meduza revealed that Putin armed the Nazis. And just recently Reuters found out that he also gave them roles in his presidential apparatus.

[Geronimo]

An in person gathering of drone manufacturers seems incredibly stupid. They couldn't meet virtually? Hopefully no operations critical personal were sent.

[Ming]

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) claimed wild fires were caused by Jewish space lasers...

[Berzerker]

Jamal Bowman (D-NY) was asked how he felt about Crimea and the Donbas and he didn't know what they were... at least Gary Johnson wasn't arming ISIS to destroy Aleppo when he didn't recognise the name.

[Broken_Erika]

Chernihiv: Russian missile strike kills seven and injures 144, Ukraine says

Seven people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed when a Russian missile struck a theatre in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday morning, officials have said.

Fifteen children were among 144 people wounded, the police said. At least 25 people were in hospital.

Among the victims were people who had been celebrating an Orthodox Christian holiday at church.

A main square and a university building were also damaged in the attack.

The UN called it "heinous", while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed a firm response by Ukrainian soldiers to a "terrorist attack".

Chernihiv is located about 50km (31 miles) south of Ukraine's border with Belarus. It was besieged by Russian troops in the first few months of President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

The city's imposing theatre was hit directly. Tiles were blown off the roofs of neighbouring buildings with one catching fire 100 metres away.

The theatre was hosting a gathering of drone manufacturers, the acting mayor of Chernihiv told the BBC.

"I understand that their aim was a military event taking place in the building of the drama theatre and that it was their target," Oleksandr Lomako said.

"But it is clear that the Russians launching those missiles and those giving them orders in the middle of the day to the civilian city realised that the victims will be primarily civilians.

"There is no other way to interpret it than a war crime against civilians, yet another Russian war crime," he added.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko later said all those inside the theatre had managed to reach shelter in time.

He said that "most of the victims were in their vehicles or crossing the road at the time of the rocket strike, as well as returning from a church".

• War in maps: Ukraine advances around two villages
• ‘Russia said I was dead’ – voices of Ukraine’s front-line women

The city centre of Chernihiv is a popular area for people to stroll around, especially on the weekend, locals told the BBC.

Anna Zahreba, the manager of a Crimean Tatar restaurant just across the street from the theatre, said her staff were getting ready for a busy day when the missile hit.

"I ran outside to see what was going on," she said. "There were two 12-year-old girls here and a lot of blood. One had her leg badly wounded. Another girl was screaming.

"We applied a tourniquet and waited for an ambulance. It was taking a long time to get here, but some man stopped his car and we took a girl to a hospital."

Anna says staff rushed to help injured people with medical kit and blankets.

"There are always many people walking around here, with children and baby strollers. Many restaurants and cafes in the area," she tells us.

"We did not expect a day like this."

In his video address late on Saturday, President Zelensky said the child killed in the Russian strike was a girl named Sofia.

Earlier, he said that Russia had turned an "ordinary Saturday" into "a day of pain and loss".

The UN said it was "extremely disturbed" by the attack.

"It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to the church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians," Denise Brown, the current head of the UN in Ukraine, said in a statement.

"Attacks directed against civilians or civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law," she said. "It must stop."

Three days of mourning have been announced in the city.

Moscow is yet to comment.

Elsewhere, Russia has claimed that a Ukrainian drone hit a military airfield in the northwest Novgorod region, causing a fire that was quickly put out.

One plane was damaged but no casualties have been reported, it added.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged drone attack.

Meanwhile, Kyiv's air force said the Ukrainian military had shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Moscow in an overnight strike.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66554412

[Ming]

And now the Russians are fighting a war that is killing far more of them. They aren't doing this for any reason except to take more land. They will continue to rape and kill the "Russians" they claim they are protecting.

[Ming]

Sounds like your paradise... brought to you by the Republicans.

[Berzerker]

sounds like Ukrainian paradise

[Berzerker]

Berz...if they were arming them "to kill ethnic Russians" why the hell didn't that happen?? Why did so many fewer ethnic Russians die from 2013 to February 2021 than have died since? If they were shelling cities to kill ethnic Russians, why were so vastly many more ethnic Russian homes destroyed from March 2021 to March 2022 than from January 2013 to January 2021? Why if they wanted to kill ethnic Russians did they pour the overwhelming majority of their shells into the closed Donetsk Airport and into rural battlefields than into Donetsk itself or at least ethnic Russian towns of any size?

If Russia Evacuated kids from "a Ukrainian advance" they'd be safe back in Western Ukraine with family members via Belarus, Turkey, the Baltics, or any number of other routes to get them home.

The kids weren't from western Ukraine and sending them there puts them at risk of conscription. We armed them to wage a proxy war on Russia, most of the dead were ethnic Russians. Obviously Azov and like-minded right wing Ukrainians want to rid their society of people who dont fit in, it starts with cultural cleansing leading to an exodus of the target population and a resistance movement. Thanks to our leaders we chose to help the Nazis because they think it hurts Russia. Same thing with ISIS in Syria, arm the 'Nazis' to hurt Assad/Russia. Afghanistan too, we armed fanatics to destroy the country to compel a Russian intervention. You cant see the pattern?

[Berzerker]

wtf ru talkin bout Willis?

[Ming]

the most misinformed party in our country is censoring the internet

And the Nazi party in our country wants to end the constitution and change to a dictatorship while limiting rights to everybody that isn't male, white and christian.

[Berzerker]

Unless you will become a sane country.

the most misinformed party in our country is censoring the internet

[Berzerker]

except for the slaughter of over 100 people that precipitated the vote

that was violent... so were all those riots we backed... yeah, that was illegal and I dont need constitutional ambiguities to figure that out

[Berzerker]

and I believe one of the reasons the Pakistani leader preferred recruiting radicals is because he didn't want them in his country causing trouble